“So much of what we’re doing now is too late to
cope with the immediate crisis and too much for the
period that follows,” he said.
According to Winslow Wheeler, director of the Straus
Military Reform Project at the Center for Defense Information in Washington, this expansion will do nothing to
solve the immediate problems in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“That toothpaste is already out of the tube,” he said.
“There are plenty of problems to solve from Iraq and
Afghanistan, but this addresses none of them and may
make some of them worse.”
Wheeler said the expansion will exacerbate the tension between manpower, readiness and hardware
already felt in the military.
While the benefits of a larger Marine Corps can be
debated, various commands are gearing up for the
increase in end-strength. Ripple effects will be felt not
just at Recruiting Command, but also Manpower and
Reserve Affairs, and Training and Education Command
(TECOM), not to mention the increased pressure on
Marine Corps logistics operations and facilities.
Each command will have growing pains.
Recruiting Command, for example, already dealing
with what officials there say is a “challenging” recruiting
environment, plans to put 600 more recruiters on the
streets. They are adamant about not lowering standards.
Manpower, which is charged with retention, has
compiled a list of about 190 Military Occupational
Specialties — characterized by one Marine official as
predominately infantry battalions, military police
units, aviation units, combat service support, logistics
units, intelligence units — that will be eligible for
handsome re-enlistment bonuses.
TECOM, where all Marines — officers and enlisted
— are trained at various points in their careers, will
have to add seats to already crowded classrooms,
which means it will have to pull Marines at the rank of
sergeant and above out of their current billets to fill
schoolhouse requirements.
Installations and logistics also will be affected by the
Corps’ growth, with officials estimating it will cost
more than $3 billion to equip the new troops and
another $6 billion to build the accompanying facilities
to house the new Marines and their families. ■
